The Preface.
the Reader; "Whoever you are, mind not the Names of these little Animals, but look into the Things they mean; call them Men, call them Kings, or Counsellors, or humane Polity itself, you have here Doctrines of every Sort." And indeed, when I hear the Frog talk concerning the Mouse's Family, I learn, Equality shou'd be observ'd in making Friendships; when I hear the Mouse answer the Frog, I remember, that a Similitude of Manners shou'd be regarded in them; when I see their Councils assembling, I think of the Bustles of humane Prudence; and when I see the Battle grow warm and glorious, our Struggles for Honour and Empire appear before me.
This Piece had many Imitations of it in Antiquity, as the Fight of the Cats, the Cranes, the Starlings, the Spiders, &c. That of the Cats is in the Bodleian Library, but I was not so lucky as to find it. I have taken the Liberty to divide my Translation into Books (tho' it be otherwise in the Original) according as the Fable allow'd proper Resting-Places, by varying its Scene, or Nature of Action: This I did, after the Example of Aristarchus and Zenodotus in the Iliad. I then thought of carrying the Grammarians Example further, and placing Arguments at the Head of each, which I fram'd as follows, in Imitation of the short Ancient Greek Inscriptions to the Iliad.
BOOK
